- No postseason play in 2009-10, including the Pac-10 conference tournament.
- A reduction of one scholarship for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.
- Reducing the number of coaches permitted to recruit off-campus by one during the summer of 2010.
- Reducing the number of recruiting days for the 2010-11 academic year to 110 from 130.
Athletic director Mike Garrett, who has presided over this train wreck and the alleged rules violations in the USC football program, informed current head coach Kevin O’Neill of the sanctions after Saturday night's game against Arizona State. O'Neill met with his players Sunday morning and called his recruits afterward and characterized their reaction as "stunned, shocked, disappointed." For a team with a 10-4 record and 2-0 conference mark this season and for players who had absolutely nothing to do with the rules violations, it truly is an injustice. For USC, it’s another black eye that comes as the university's football program is also under investigation for allegations that Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush received improper benefits while he played at the school. Additionally, current USC running back Joe McKnight was held out of last week’s Emerald Bowl in San Francisco while the school investigated the possible illegal purchase of a vehicle for he and/or his girlfriend, which would have obviously made him ineligible. Garrett’s comments on both situations have been extremely amusing inasmuch as they don’t at all match up with the actions and deeds of those involved in them on behalf of the university. "USC takes allegations of NCAA rules violations very seriously," Garrett said. "When allegations were made regarding our men's basketball program we immediately began an investigation and worked closely with the NCAA and the Pac-10 in an attempt to ascertain the truth. When we've done something wrong, we have an obligation to do something about it and that is exactly what we are doing here." You may take allegations of NCAA rules violations seriously, Mike, but you obviously don’t take violating the rules in the first place very seriously…………
- I think we can all agree that we wish we had parents like Patty Jo Marsh and Jacob Bartels of Atlanta, Ga. Marsh and Bartels are the proud parents of seven children, ages 10 to 17, and they clearly care about their children’s happiness. All parents want to make their children happy and will go to almost any lengths to make that a reality, but not every parent is will to give six of their seven minor children homemade tattoos. That’s right, these two Mensas say that their children wanted to look like mom and dad, both of whom have ink. Rather than assess the situation, realize that children under the age of 18 are prohibited outright and that , it is illegal for anyone besides a license professional to tattoo in Georgia, Marsh and Bartels went to work making their children’s dreams come true. They received a tattoo machine from a friend, fixed it up and used guitar strings as a needle. The day after Thanksgiving, they put small cross tattoos on all but the youngest child. “They weren’t hurt by them,” said Marsh. “We would never do anything to hurt them.” As someone who has a tattoo and understands what the experience of getting one is like when it is done by a licensed professional, I can wholeheartedly disagree with that assessment. The process does involved a fair amount of pain, especially for children and especially when the person giving them the ink is their idiot parent who has no training whatsoever. Seriously, this is your home, not cell block D in the local correctional facility. Quit doing prison tats on your children, no matter how much they beg for them. The ink went undiscovered until after two of the children went to visit their biological mother for Christmas and she discovered the crosses. For some odd reason, moms wasn’t down with the tats and she reported them to the authorities, who charged Marsh and Bartels with cruelty to children, reckless conduct and tattooing. Oh, what I would give to have been in that home when the biological mother realized that two of her children had been tattooed by their father and his idiot girlfriend. “Hey kids, what’s that on your arm there? Did someone get a temporary tattoo from a vending machine? Man, that looks real, let me see……AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” You know that woman could not dial the phone fast enough to turn in her idiot ex-husband and his new lady friend. Making matters worse, Marsh claims she had no idea what she and Bartels were doing was illegal. “If we knew that, we wouldn’t have done it,” Marsh said. You didn’t know that it’s illegal to give home tats to your underage children? How do you get up in the morning and know how to feed yourself and get out of bed, you idiot? In the aftermath of the tattooing incident, Child Services temporarily removed the children from the home, but they are now back with their parents, who are on bail. As for Marsh, she still doesn’t get it. She feels that many have labeled she and Bartels as child abusers, which she takes great offense to. “If I’m such a bad parent, then how come they brought the kids back right after I got out jail?” A couple of closing points here: 1) These two are not child abusers. They are morons, they have a combined IQ of 19 and they are not fit to care for children, but I do not believe in any way that they did this to abuse their children, and 2) The reason you have your children back is because that’s just how the system works, Marsh. Don’t worry, they should be ripped from your custody again very soon…………
- Not that you needed to be told this, but Tea Party activists are tools. I like their basic ideas – especially the withdrawal of all American troops from around the world and the immediate cessation of any and all government surveillance that infringes on the personal privacy of American citizens, but these kooks are always taking things to a bizarre new level that makes them virtually impossible to sympathize or empathize with. They do stupid crap like throwing tea bags into bodies of water like this is 1774 or something and their tired rhetoric is as played as played gets. When I hear that these kooks are planning a 'national strike' on January 20, the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's inauguration, I am slightly amused but mostly annoyed. Over the holidays, the morons who lead the Tea Party were having a conference call and attempting to figure out ways to get Congress and the public to pay attention to them. Allen Hardage, a conservative grassroots organizer from Georgia, explained that the idea of holding an economic protest sprung up during the conference call because Tea Partiers are increasingly frustrated by the fact that no one gives a damn what they have to say. "Tea Party activists are frustrated that despite a huge turnout over the last year Congress is ignoring them," said Hardage, who is national operations director for the planned strike. "The question is that if the elected officials ignore you, what do you do to exercises your right to self-governance? So we decided to hold a National Day of Strike where we go after the large donors of the people pushing this radical agenda." The “strike” will last just one day and will attempt to focus attention on the businesses that support the most liberal members of Congress as well as groups that advocate "big government" policies. So what is so terrible about this so-called strike? Because it’s not even a strike, or a boycott, or any other means of social dissent. In fact, I’m not sure what it is. Allow my man A. Hardage to explain further on why this is not a boycott and what it is: "Here we are exposing the agenda of some of the most widely known companies in America and letting the consumer decide. If a corporation decides to jump into politics to the tune of millions of dollars, then they need to expect that they will alienate some of their customers." So are you using these companies’ products and services or not? What is your position on the issue? I don’t know and a visit to the Web sites of various Tea Party groups and their pages on social networking sites didn’t exactly clarify much. The strike also doesn’t appear to be a concerted, unified effort throughout the Tea Party. When asked about the strike, some local Tea Party groups were aware of the planned strike and some had no idea about it. Additionally, none of those asked about the strike said they were going to actively take part in the event. Quite an event you have going, Tea Party. You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t give a crap……………
- If you are one of the ten people in America who still watch the nightly national news, then you a) are definitely over the age of 50, and b) noticed something different about the opening moment of CBS Evening News on Monday night. Ever since the irritatingly perky Katie Couric took over as the show’s anchor in 2006, she has been introduced via a voiceover done by legendary newsman Walter Cronkite. Cronkite, who passed away in July, was a familiar and recognizable voice and having him introduce a subpar news anchor like Couric was, at least in the minds of CBS executives, a boost to her credibility with viewers. But after Cronkite died in July, the network began moving forward with plans for a new introductory voice for its evening newscast. Enter legendary actor Morgan Freeman, better known to movie fans as Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding of Shawshank Redemption fame. Beginning with Monday’s broadcast, Freeman is now the voice leading off CBS Evening News. . "As comforting as it is to look back on the great career that Walter had, we're looking forward now and we just felt it was the right time to make the move that at some point had to be made," CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus said in explaining the decision. "This seemed like the appropriate time since Walter's passing to make the move.” For any Cronkite fans out there who view this decision as calloused and cold on CBS’ part, know that McManus is right. At some point, CBS needed to move on and there’s never going to be a perfect time, a time when everyone is okay with the decision. Well, I suppose you could wait 50 years or so until everyone has forgotten who Cronkite was, but odds are that Couric would be done by that point anyhow. So it’s the right call and it also gives the network flexibility to record different introductions for Couric for special reports or when she is on location. Besides, Freeman is an Oscar winner with legendary pipes and you’ll be perfectly fine with him leading off your nightly news with his great voice. After all, dude did provide narration for documentaries including 2005's March of the Penguins. That’s right, freaking March of the Penguins…………
- Remember all of those gloom-and-doom stories you heard at the end of 2009 about the sudden financial troubles in Dubai, i.e. The World’s Most Excessive and Opulent Nation? Can anyone out there tell me how I’m supposed to reconcile those stories with Dubai’s big day on Monday, when it officially inaugurated the centerpiece of its decade-long construction boom, a world-beating 168-story skyscraper that is even larger than previously thought? The city-state's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (even the names in Dubai are freaking ginormous), led the party as the tower was unveiled. Even as many lamented the tower as a symbol of the city's economic excess, the sheikh hosted a glitzy firework-lit ceremony and unveiled a plaque commemorating the event. He also announced that the $1.5 billion structure has a new name: the Burj Khalifa. It is named after Khalifa Bin Zayed, the president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi. That’s fitting because it was Abu Dhabi that recently bailed out debt-ridden Dubai for a hearty of $10 billion debt. The tower was officially recorded as 2,716 feet tall, adding more than 32 feet on to previous height claims. To be fair to the gluttons and wasters in Dubai, the tower is six years in the making and when work started on the project, they were only about 50 percent as aware of their excessive, over-the-top lifestyle and its possible drawbacks as they are now. The tower’s record height is 1,046 feet higher than previous skyscraping record-holder Taipei 101. As you’d expect, the tall tower provides some bitchin’ views of the city and the results of the ambitious building program that has transformed the emirate. It was designed by Chicago-based architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, who engaged in full-on hyperbole in calling the Burj Khalifa "a bold global icon that will serve as a model for future urban centers." Apparently, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill feel that "tall buildings are back," and the techniques it used to push the Burj Khalifa to new heights should enable the construction of even taller towers in the future. "As with any project, SOM's architects and engineers learned a great deal and are ready to apply this to the next world's tallest building as it is certainly possible to go taller," the company said in a statement. Yet not everyone is down with the Burj Khalifa and those critics point to it as another folly along the lines of the Palm Jumeirah and World archipelagos of man-made islands built for the super-rich. That would seem to be a fair criticism, given the fact that last year the emirate asked for a freeze on payments owed on its $26 billion in debts. If the world’s most oil-rich nation can get itself into such deep financial sh*t, that can't bode well for everyone else. The tower itself may bring in a little more money for tourism, but the reality is that the building will use an ungodly amount of electricity and the upper 30 or 40 floors are so tiny that they're useless, meaning they can't be used for anything but storage. Color me cynical, but I have a feeling that the excitement of yesterday’s festivities will soon give way to tremendous regret that this structure was ever built…………
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